Whither the protest song in 2026? In January 1970, John Lennon wrote and recorded ‘Instant Karma!’ in a single day and had it in the shops a little over a week later – no mean feat given the mechanics of physical record production at the time.

Nowadays, when the practicalities of releasing music are infinitely more streamlined, it has never been easier for artists to react to current events within moments of them occurring. And with the febrile news churn packing a year’s worth of drama into each week, there is certainly no shortage of material.

A small man with big ideas and a loud voice, Bono is a veritable magnet for ridicule

A small man with big ideas and a loud voice, Bono is a veritable magnet for ridicule

Yet in an online culture already gerrymandered along algorithms of age, gender, political bias and nationality, it is far easier to speechify on Instagram or X than write a song, and harder than ever for marginal voices to preach to anyone other than the converted. With apologies to any thrusting Greenlandic rappers flying under my radar, when it comes to protest music, it has of late been left to those with the largest footprint – and, often, the most hefty ‘old media’ presence – to cut through.

Last month, over the course of a weekend, Bruce Springsteen wrote,........

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